Lisa Marie Kimmell was from Billings MT headed to her boyfriends house in March of 1988 when something went awry. Eight days later Lisa's body was found in a river in Casper, WY. She had been raped and stabbed to death. Lisa's 1988 black Honda CRX with license plate LILMISS was still "missing". Later a letter would be left on her grave and it was believed it was by the person who killed her. In 2002, a special second run of DNA pulled up a match to the sperm taken from Lisa during her autopsy. The match was from a man named Dale Wayne Eaton who was already serving a sentence in Colorado. After questioning some of the people who knew Eaton, a neighbor would state that she had seen Eaton digging a large hole in his front yard, just says after Kimmell disappeared in 1988. An excavation began and it would unearth Kimmells long lost CRX. In 2003, some 16 years after Lisa Marie Kimmell's death, a jury would find Dale Wayne Eaton guilty of Lisa Marie Kimmell's death and he was sentenced to die by lethal injectionl.

Example Photograph of the 1988 Honda CRX that was MISSING for 14 years.

Lisa Marie Kimmell's voice rang through a 7th District Courtroom on Wednesday, as prosecutors played a 16-year-old tape recording made by the Wyoming highway patrolman who stopped the teen for speeding just before she disappeared in 1988.

The tape was played on the first day of the capital murder trial of 59-year-old Dale Wayne Eaton -- the man accused of orchestrating Kimmell's kidnap, rape and murder.

The girl's voice brought her family to tears. They sat in the front row, listening to her converse with state trooper Al Lesco inside his patrol car.

Lesco was the last person known to see the 18-year-old alive. He was called to the stand by District Attorney Mike Blonigen, to relay the events of that night.

On March 25, 1988, Kimmell left Denver in her Black Honda CRX Si and headed north to see her boyfriend, Ed Jaroch, in Cody. On Interstate 25 near Douglas at 8:39 p.m., Kimmell crossed Lesco's path, he said.

He clocked her going 88 mph, well over the speed limit, he told the court.

He wrote Kimmell a citation, he said, and told her she would have to post a $120 bond because she wasn't from Wyoming. But Kimmell didn't have the cash.

"I have $40 with me," she could be heard telling Lesco. Her voice timid, Kimmell asked if she could go to a cash machine.

On July 3, 1989, Don Flickinger boarded a plane in Billings and flew to Portland, Ore., for his first official interview in the Lisa Marie Kimmell murder investigation. It had been 15 months since the 18-year-old Billings woman was bludgeoned, stabbed and thrown off a bridge in Wyoming.

When the agent from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms landed, he met Dan Tholson, one of the lead investigators on the case for Natrona County, Wyo., where Lisa's body was found in the North Platte River. Flickinger and Tholson had spoken many times on the phone, but it was the first time the two men met. They were in Oregon to speak with a county jail inmate who had been calling Kimmell's parents in Billings.

The interview was a bust. As Flickinger would find later, it was the first of many dead-end leads and disappointments in a case he spent six years trying to solve.

Some of the leads would take Flickinger as far away as Alaska and Texas. Others would have him questioning fellow law enforcement officers. He interviewed members of a cult, listened to psychics and sorted through thousands of tips from across the country after the case aired on prime-time television.

Flickinger followed every lead as far as it would go. Other cops called him "the vampire" because he took so many blood samples from potential suspects or people he wanted to rule out.

Bruising and abrasions found on the wrists of Lisa Marie Kimmell indicated she had been bound by a hemp or braided nylon rope, County Coroner James Thorpen, M.D., told jurors seated for the capital murder trial of Dale Wayne Eaton in 7th District Court.

Thorpen's autopsy report showed Kimmell had many bruises and abrasions, mainly on her wrists, ankles, arms and legs. The ligature marks showed up after the body was embalmed, according to testimony.

Eaton is accused of committing the high-profile kidnap, robbery, rape and murder of the 18-year-old girl whose body was found floating in the North Platte River under the old Government Bridge west of Casper in 1988. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Eaton.

Eaton's trial was in its third day Friday when Thorpen was recalled to the stand. He testified briefly Wednesday afternoon.

The state's key witness described for the jury the ligature marks, the woman's six stab wounds and a head injury investigators say she received before being thrown from the bridge.

That blow to the head was so severe, Thorpen said, that it caused a four-inch fracture to Kimmell's skull. She also had a fractured hip, likely received in her fall from the bridge, he added.

Upon further questioning by District Attorney Mike Blonigen regarding Kimmell's time of death, Thorpen could only estimate that she died 36 to 46 hours before she was found in the river.

His autopsy findings also concluded that she died sometime in the evening, though Eaton's attorney, Wyatt Skaggs, objected to that conclusion.

Thorpen said Kimmell's body had not decomposed much before she was discovered and said she appeared to have eaten something resembling beef stew roughly two to four hours before she was killed.

The binding material, the knife, and the weapon used to hit Kimmell in the head were never recovered, the jury was told.

The Montana teen vanished Friday, March 25, while driving through Wyoming nearly 16 years ago.

The 59-year-old Eaton was linked to the woman's killing in the summer of 2002 after authorities were notified that a DNA sample Eaton submitted while incarcerated at the Wyoming State Penitentiary in 1998 matched samples taken from Kimmell's body.

Not long after the alleged DNA match was confirmed, Natrona County sheriff's investigators unearthed Kimmell's car -- a black Honda CRX with vanity plates that read LIL MISS. The car was allegedly found buried deep under the ground on a Moneta property owned by Eaton, who was criminally charged with Kimmell's murder in April 2003.

The jury Friday was careful to keep extremely graphic autopsy photos taken of Kimmell's injuries out of the view of the family, who was seated right behind them in 7th District Court.

However, several photos depicting the deep stab wounds Kimmell suffered were held up in front of the jury so the doctor could explain them.

According to Thorpen, Kimmell's killer hit her in the back of the head with a severe blow before meticulously stabbing her six times. She was stabbed five times in the chest and once in the abdomen. Small cuts surrounding the stab wounds indicated that the killer felt around with the knife before stabbing the girl, so as not to hit her ribs, Thorpen concluded.

Thorpen additionally testified that he believed Kimmell's hands were still bound together when she was stabbed, and that the bindings were then removed.

"The position of her body made us think of binding," even before the actual marks became visible, he said.

Skaggs also objected to that conclusion, among others, in his cross-examination of Thorpen.

Dale Wayne Eaton on Wednesday was found guilty of the kidnap, rape and murder of 18-year-old Lisa Marie Kimmell in 1988.

The 7th District Court jury must now determine if he should be executed for the crimes.

Eaton, 59, was convicted on all but one of eight counts filed against him. A charge of second-degree sexual assault was not considered after jurors found him guilty of first-degree sexual assault.

The defendant showed no emotion as Gen Tuma, the Clerk of District Court, read aloud the verdict the jury reached around 3 p.m. Deliberations were restarted after noon Tuesday when an alternate was called to replace a juror who was excused for reasons that are not being disclosed.

He appeared mildly anxious before the court proceedings started, but once the jury entered the room, he regained his composure.

Tuma announced to the court that the jury found Eaton guilty of first-degree premeditated murder, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated robbery and first-degree sexual assault.

The jury also convicted Eaton of three counts of first-degree felony murder, each committed during the course of separate crimes of sexual assault, robbery and kidnapping, Tuma said.

The Kimmell family, sitting at the front of a standing-room-only courtroom, put their arms around one another as they awaited the jury's decision. Upon hearing the first verdict, Sheila Kimmell, Lisa Kimmell's mother, rested her head on her husband Ron's shoulder.

Seated throughout the room were numerous court officials, attorneys and observers, some of whom had watched the entire trial, which began March 3.

Outside the courtroom, observer Dora Westbrook of Casper said she was not at all surprised by the verdict.

The story of Lisa Marie Kimmell's 1986 murder and the 14 years it took to catch her killer is the subject of tonight's episode of Cold Case Files at 7 p.m. on A&E.

Kimmell was 18 when she was kidnapped, raped and killed while driving through Wyoming in 1988. Her body was found soon after the homicide, and biological samples were taken from her body, but her car -- a black Honda bearing personalized plates "LIL MISS" -- remained missing.

A DNA test of convict Dale Wayne Eaton in 2002 appeared to match the samples taken from Kimmell's body, and in August of that year, investigators unearthed her car from his property west of Casper. Eaton was convicted of her killing this year and was sentenced to death.

City decides tonight toy vehicles

The Casper City Council will hold the final reading tonight at 6 p.m. tonight on an ordinance banning some types of motorized toy vehicles from the city's streets, sidewalks, trails, parks and right-of-ways.

The meeting will be held in the City Council Chambers.

As it now stands, the ordinance would ban all gas-powered motorized toy vehicles from city streets, including gas-powered skateboards, unlicensed scooters and other unlicensed gas-powered vehicles. The ordinance was amended on second reading to allow some electrically-powered toy vehicles on city property

Ron and Sheila Kimmell were granted a $5 million civil judgment against Dale Wayne Eaton -- the man sentenced to death by a Casper jury last month for the kidnap, robbery, rape and murder of their daughter, Lisa Marie Kimmell, in 1988.

The Kimmells filed a wrongful death complaint against Eaton in 7th District Court last May.

Eaton never responded to the complaint and the Kimmells subsequently asked the court for $4 million in compensatory damages and $1 million in punitive damages.

District Judge W. Thomas Sullins granted the family the full amount Monday by way of a default judgment, court records state.

The $5 million debt will bear interest at a statutory rate of 10 percent per year, until paid, added Sullins, who was not the judge who presided over the criminal case.

Eaton was linked to the crime by a DNA match 14 years after the fact and was sentenced to death March 20 after a lengthy 7th District Court trial.

An execution date has not been set yet.

Eaton was also convicted of offenses related to Kimmell's homicide that are not punishable by death. He has not been sentenced on those counts yet, but will be after a presentence investigation is completed.

Eaton's sentencing hearing on the other crimes could include the setting of an execution date, District Attorney Mike Blonigen said last month.

Contacted at her home in Colorado, Sheila Kimmell said she knows Eaton doesn't have that kind of money.

"There is no profit in it for us. But that's not the point," Kimmell said. "There isn't anything of Dale's that we want -- he has nothing of value -- but we want to strip him of everything he does have. It's the principle of the matter."

Frankly, Kimmell said, her daughter's life was "priceless."

Lisa Kimmell vanished on March 25, 1988, as she was driving through Wyoming from her job in Denver. She planned to stop in Cody to pick up her boyfriend, Ed Jaroch, on her way to Billings, but she never made it. Her body was found in the North Platte River under the old Government Bridge eight days after she disappeared.

She had been abducted and held against her will for days, investigators testified at Eaton's trial. She was sexually assaulted, hit in the head and stabbed six times in the chest and abdomen before being thrown from the bridge.

Kimmell's car -- a black Honda CRX Si with personalized Montana plates that read "LIL MISS" -- was not found until July 2002, when it was uncovered by local law enforcement investigators on Eaton's Moneta property.

The 6,000-square foot property is valued at $1,400, according to an official with the Fremont County Assessor's office.

The Kimmell family still has to go through the legal process to take possession of the property, Sheila Kimmell said, but if they are awarded the deed, the family wants to change the landscape.

"We do not want that property to stand as an evil, haunting reminder" of what happened to her daughter, Kimmell said.

CASPER, Wyo. -- A 90-year-old Casper woman said she saw Dale Eaton digging a huge hole out on his property where investigators last week unearthed a car that may be connected with the 1988 killing of Lisa Marie Kimmell of Billings.

"He told us he was digging a well," said Eaton's former neighbor, who refused to be identified. She was a resident of Moneta for 20 years, and had lived across the highway from Eaton until 1994. "My husband told him he was crazy - he'd have to dig 200 to 300 feet to get a well. ... It was so preposterous."

The woman has never been contacted by law enforcement investigators, she said Friday night.

Although she doesn't know exactly when she saw Eaton digging the hole, his digging was "approximately in the same place" where the car was unearthed, she said. She used wildlife-spotting binoculars to watch him, she said.

The car pulled out of the ground on Eaton's property Wednesday may be a link to the April 1988 homicide of Kimmell, but authorities will neither confirm nor deny any connection to Kimmell's killing. They also will not say if Eaton is a suspect in the case.

Eaton, 57, is currently in a Littleton, Colo., prison and is accused of killing his cellmate, officials said Friday. Eaton is serving three years in on a charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm. He was up for release in 2003.

But last September, at a high-security federal prison in Florence, Colo., Eaton allegedly killed his cellmate, Clay Inman Palmer, 40, during an argument. Contacted Friday in Denver, Eaton's public defender, Robert W. Pepin, said Eaton punched his cellmate one time, they talked for a minute and then Palmer simply "dropped dead."

Pepin contends that an artery in Palmer's head burst shortly after being hit.

Six months after Palmer's death, Eaton was transferred to Englewood Federal Correctional Institution in Littleton, according to Florence officials.

Eaton has pleaded not guilty and a trial date has been tentatively set for Nov. 19, according to Jeff Dorschner, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Denver.

Pepin said there will be some controversy over what charge is appropriate under the circumstances. "There doesn't seem to be any deep, dark conspiracy, no weird stuff, no prison gang stuff. It's a very different, odd sort of thing," Pepin said.

Eaton is also wanted in Natrona County for escaping from Community Alternatives in Casper in June 1998.

District Attorney Kevin Meenan remained silent about the investigation, which brought top law enforcement officials to Eaton's land on Monday. As the sheriffs of Natrona and Fremont counties stood and watched, a backhoe dug into Eaton's property, between a trailer home and a shop, and on Wednesday, a television camera caught what appeared to be a car being pulled out of a hole.

The car was covered with a blue tarp and hauled away to an unknown location.

Officials plan to return to Moneta next week, though they are reluctant to say when.

Eaton's land is in Fremont County, about 12 miles west of the Natrona County line. Moneta is about 70 miles west of Casper.

Eaton's neighbors, Grayce and Dennis Keller, who live on the south side of U.S. Highway 20-26, saw the car unearthed. Its front end was smashed and it was covered in dirt -- so much so that they couldn't determine its make. That wasn't for lack of trying -- Grayce Keller got a headache from looking through her binoculars all day, her husband said.

CASPER, Wyo. - A judge has ruled that Dale Wayne Eaton, charged for the rape and murder of an 18-year-old Billings woman in 1988, be tried in Casper. But 7th District Judge David Park said Friday that Lisa Marie Kimmell's family would not be allowed to testify before jurors how the murder has affected them. Eaton's court-appointed attorneys, Wyatt Skaggs and Vaughn H. Neubauer, told Park they did not object to allowing Kimmell's family in the courtroom throughout the trial. But they did not want the family to testify during sentencing if Eaton is convicted. Skaggs, citing case law, argued that the Kimmells' testimony would have a "tremendous impact on the jury." Park sided with the defense on that matter. The family will, however, be given an opportunity to testify before a judge, Assistant District Attorney Mike Blonigen said after the hearing. Eaton is charged with first-degree premeditated murder, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated robbery, first-degree sexual assault and second-degree sexual assault in Kimmell's death. He is being held without bond. Three additional counts of first-degree felony murder were also brought. Each was allegedly committed during the course of separate felony crimes of sexual assault, robbery and kidnapping, according to court documents. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty, although it remains to be decided whether Eaton will be tried according to the death penalty law at the time of the crime or under the current statute. If Eaton is found guilty, the jury will decide whether he should get the death penalty and the decision on that matter must be unanimous. The judge will decide on the remaining charges. That is when the Kimmells will be allowed to testify. Skaggs filed the motion to change the venue. In the motion, Skaggs said press coverage of Eaton's case was excessive and hindered his client's ability to receive a fair trial. But on Friday, Skaggs told Park that he no longer felt it was necessary to move the trial because "50 to 60 percent" of the jurors already questioned about the case said they had no opinion as to Eaton's guilt or innocence. He said he preferred to have the trial in Laramie, but no court time is available there. He also said most people in Laramie have also been exposed to newspaper articles on the case. Kimmell disappeared while driving from Denver to Montana. She was last seen March 25, 1988, behind the wheel of her black Honda CRX Si with the personalized license plates "LIL MISS," when she was stopped for speeding on Interstate 25 near Douglas. Her body was found April 2, 1988. She had been sexually assaulted, hit on the head and stabbed several times before being thrown from Government Bridge off Wyoming 220 west of Casper, according to investigators. There were no leads in the case and Kimmell's car was missing until last year, when sheriff's investigators allegedly unearthed it on Eaton's property near Moneta, about 75 miles west of Casper. Eaton was in prison in Colorado at the time.

LITTLETON, Colo. (AP) - The mother of an 18-year-old who was murdered near Casper, Wyo., in 1988 said her family waited a long time for charges to be filed in the case.

Lisa Marie Kimmell, 18, of Billings, Mont., disappeared in March 1988 while driving from her job in Denver to Montana to meet some friends. Her body was found near Casper, Wyo., on April 2, 1988.

A routine check of Wyoming's DNA database last year revived the investigation and led to Thursday's arrest of Dale Wayne Eaton, 58, according to court documents.

Eaton has been charged with four counts of murder, two counts of sexual assault, one count of kidnapping and one count of robbery. His initial court appearance is scheduled for Monday.

Lisa Marie Kimmell's mother, Sheila Kimmell, of Littleton, told the Denver Rocky Mountain News she heard about the arrest Thursday afternoon. The district attorney's office in Casper faxed her the 12 pages of charges soon after.

"It was difficult to go over and review that information," Kimmell said. "When we actually read the charges, all eight of them, and read some of the information that hasn't been shared with us before, it was difficult."

The investigation of Eaton allegedly led to last summer's discovery of Kimmell's Honda CRX buried on Eaton's property near Moneta, Wyo., about 75 miles west of Casper.

Eaton was being held at the federal prison in Jefferson County on unrelated gun charges. He was questioned and this month was transferred to the Natrona County jail to face unrelated charges.

The case has long haunted the deputies of Natrona County.

Kimmell disappeared while driving a desolate stretch of Interstate 25 near Casper. Her body was discovered days later in the North Platte River about two miles downstream from Casper.

According to the autopsy report, Kimmell had been bound, raped, beaten and then stabbed six times in the chest and abdomen. Her car, with plates that read LIL MISS, was missing.

Besides finding Kimmell's car on July 29, deputies also found hub caps and taillight pieces from Kimmell's car in a well, authorities allege.

The car's wheels, seats, stereo and gearshift knob were missing.

Eaton's son told investigators last year he remembers helping his father in 1988 melt down four Honda wheels to sell as scrap and helped install a stereo and Honda seats in a pickup, new court documents reveal.

Shirley Widmer, a friend of Eaton's who lives 30 miles east of Moneta, was shocked to hear of the charges.

"Surprised is the understatement," she said. "I just can't believe it _ we've known the man. We just didn't think he was capable of doing something like this."

Sheila Kimmell remained cautious about the new developments.

"Regardless of our opinions . . . Mr. Eaton is still entitled to a fair trial," she said. "We (will) try to keep some balance, and that's a hard thing to do, and we're having a hard time."

Just wanted to remind everybody who is familiar with the Lisa Marie Kimmell case that tonight, Thursday Dec. 2, 2004 at 8 p.m. Eastern Standard time, AETV will be airing the segment of Lisa's disappearance and murder. This is one that is worth watching

***This is the case that many think is similar to Carrie Culberson's because of the Honda CRX.***

I used to live in Ft. Collins, Co. and rough and wild Wyoming up north is a bad place for an unescorted young teen age girl. It's not uncommon to get a lasso thrown at you from a passing pick up truck. That's supposed to be a form of local humor.

I used to live in Ft. Collins, Co. and rough and wild Wyoming up north is a bad place for an unescorted young teen age girl. It's not uncommon to get a lasso thrown at you from a passing pick up truck. That's supposed to be a form of local humor.

I had known about Lisa Marie Kimmell since 1988 when Unsolved Mysteries first broadcasted her. I could not remember her name for the life of me and the tag I was trying to find I thought was OLEMISS - rather than LILMISS. Obviously there would be no search ingine hits on that unless it's for the college. Anyway, someone told me one night about a show they'd seen and the girls name. ONLY THEN did I realize it was Lisa Marie Kimmell. We posted her immediately on this board. The CRX caught my eye because Carrie's CRX is missing. This man Eaton is a sick individual. Sadly there are too many like him out there in the world. Thanks for posting. Do post more often.